Produced by This ebook was produced by: K. Nordquist,
Charles Bidwell, David T. Jones & the Online Distributed
Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdpcanada.net
The Canadian Girl at Work
_A BOOK OF VOCATIONAL GUIDANCE_
By
MARJORY MacMURCHY
Prepared at the Instance of the Minister of Education
for Use in Ontario School Libraries
[Illustration: logo]
Printed by Order of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario
TORONTO
Printed and Published by A. T. Wilgress,
Printer to the King's Most Excellent Majesty
1919
Copyright, Canada, 1919, by the
MINISTER OF EDUCATION FOR ONTARIO
PREFACE
The object of _The Canadian Girl at Work_ is to assist girls in finding
satisfactory employment. The further aim of showing them what constitutes
a right attitude toward work and toward life through work, underlies the
account of each occupation. The book is meant for girls, and for the
assistance of fathers and mothers, of teachers, and of those who are
interested in questions of training and employment.
The life of the average woman is divided, generally, into two periods of
work, that of paid employment and that of home-making. No adequate scheme
of training for girls can fail to take account of this fact. They should be
equipped with knowledge and skill for home-making, and assisted in making
the best use of their years in paid work. Happily, it appears from an
investigation of the conditions affecting girls as wage-earners that the
knowledge which helps them to be good home-makers is necessary to their
well-being in paid employment. Technical training and skill are not more
helpful to a girl at work than specialized knowledge in matters of food,
clothing, health, and daily regimen. Lack of training in home-making is
probably the greatest drawback which a girl in paid employment can have.
Her business during her first years of paid employment may not require much
skill or experience, but her living conditions require all the specialized
woman's knowledge that training can give her.
To bring about in the life of a girl a satisfactory connection between
paid employment and home-making, and to show the home employments in
their rightful place as occupations of the first importance, are necessary
objectives in any book of this character.
When considering the employments of to-day as part of their own lives,
girls of the twentieth century may well look back through the long ages
to women's work in the past.[1] The study of anthropology appears to
indicate that in primeval ages women began the textile industry and,
possibly, agriculture. There seems to be no doubt that they were primitive
architects, and that they tamed some of the smaller domestic animals. They
had most to do with the preparation of food and may have introduced the
use of herbs and medicines. They were spinners, weavers, upholsterers,
and sail-makers. Most of these employments were taken up by men and
specialized and developed almost past imagination. It is evident that
women have always worked, and worked hard. If they had not done so, the
race would not have reached its present position, and women themselves
would have remained undeveloped, without a realization of their own
possibilities.
The history of Anglo-Saxon times shows women engaged in spinning, weaving,
dyeing, and embroidering, carrying on these industrial arts in the home,
side by side with the work of the house. The work of women in home
manufactures was a by-industry, not occupying the worker's whole time, but
nevertheless an important occupation. Later, women were employed in many
kinds of industrial work as assistants to their husbands and fathers. It is
doubtful if wages were paid for such work. Employment of this kind is not
to be thought of merely as a romantic or picturesque accompaniment of home
life. Houses and comforts centuries back were not such as they are to-day;
and the work of women was toil, side by side with men who toiled also.
The modern factory did not originate industrial work. The factory carried
many industries away from the home where they had originated; and women
followed their work to large establishments where they were trained to
work collectively. The statement can be made with truth that machinery
has made it possible for women to perform work for which their strength
would otherwise have been insufficient. Through the industrial revolution
brought about by factory work, the general body of women workers became
wage-earners, rather than unpaid workers who contributed to the financial
earnings of their fathers and husbands.
In Canada, the process of development of women's work in the past fifty
years has been rapid. The grandmothers of the women of this generation
carded wool and used spinning wheels within the memory of workers of less
than middle age. One old woman who died not many years ago told how she
used to bake in an oven out-of-doors and had dyed homespun with butternut.
The soap cauldron stood on the levelled stump of what had been once a
forest tree. Candles were moulded in iron moulds. Household industries were
carried on expertly in the homes of pioneers by the women of the family.
When these days had gone, there followed other days in which the children
of the pioneers devoted themselves to the schooling so highly esteemed but
rarely enjoyed by their parents. The boys, after school life, turned
to business, railway employments, teaching, banking, farming, became
ministers, lawyers, doctors, or gave their thoughts to politics.
The girls taught school, were milliners or dressmakers, went into shops,
or became the wives of nation builders in every walk of life. A few were
nurses, journalists, doctors, or missionaries.
The work of that generation has been followed by a century in which
Canadian girls are invited to share in nearly every form of activity. This
great freedom with its many opportunities has come for noble ends. What the
girls of to-day must strive to do is to take up their work with a vision of
what it may be made to mean--men and women in co-partnership laying the
foundations of a new earth.
It is probable that the social and domestic conditions of the earliest
workers were far below those of the average worker of to-day. But, although
present conditions are better than those of the past, the process of
amelioration should be greatly advanced by this generation. The increasing
opportunities of girls, both in home-making and paid employment, are likely
to become a contributing factor in the humanizing of every form of
industry. We have learned to realize the possibilities of machinery.
What we must do now is to imagine and realize the possibilities of the
individual worker. This can be done only through study, experience, and
actual work in industrial occupations which offer employment to women.
The woman of the home has work of unrivalled value. She has to study new
standards of living, to help to control the food supply, to improve the
health of children, and to lower the rate of infant mortality. A standard
of living in each community might be tabulated by women home-makers. Such
information should be available in each locality and should be accessible
to all classes in the community. How are workers--girls, boys, men, or
women--to know on what sums individuals and families can live and maintain
health and efficiency in one district or another, if these matters are not
studied, determined, and published for their use?
[Footnote 1: Acknowledgment is made to Miss B. L. Hutchins' _Women
in Modern Industry_. G. Bell & Sons].
CONTENTS
PAGE
Preface iii
CHAPTER
I. Thinking About Work 1
II. The Girl Who Works in a Factory 4
III. The Saleswoman 9
IV. The Girl at Work in an Office 15
V. Learning After the Position is Found 20
VI. What Every Girl Needs to Know 24
VII. The House Worker. Domestic Science 28
VIII. The Teacher 33
IX. The Work of a Nurse 39
X. Dressmakers and Seamstresses 45
XI. The Milliner 50
XII. Making One's Own Clothes. Home Millinery 53
XIII. Telephone and Telegraph Girls 56
XIV. Hairdresser and Manicurist. Waitress 61
XV. Farm Work for Women 65
XVI. The Librarian 71
XVII. Work for the Girl at Home 76
XVIII. The Home Employments 82
XIX. Journalism. Writing. Advertising. Art. Handicrafts.
Designing. Photography. Architecture. Landscape
Gardening. House Decorating and Furnishing.
Music. Acting. Dancing 88
XX. Banking. Law. Medicine. Dentistry. Pharmacy.
Chemical Industry. Civil Service. Social Work 94
XXI. Going into Business for One's Self 99
XXII. New Work for Women 102
XXIII. Money and Wages 107
XXIV. Spending. Saving. Investing 112
XXV. Health 116
XXVI. A Girl's Reading 121
XXVII. Necessary Work 126
XXVIII. What One Girl Can Do for Another 129
XXIX. Civic Duties and Responsibilities 133
XXX. The Best Kind of Work 138
List of Occupations 141
Bibliography 146
Index 149
THE CANADIAN GIRL AT WORK
CHAPTER I
THINKING ABOUT WORK
Thinking about work is the beginning of one of the happiest and most useful
of our experiences. Through work there comes to us the pleasure of a
growing knowledge of the great world and its wonders, the delight of
intercourse with other people, and the happiness of friendship with our
fellow-workers. Work well done is a doorway to whatever good things we most
desire. Best of all, perhaps, to the girl who is earning her living, is the
satisfaction of feeling that she is a useful citizen, doing her part in the
development of Canada.
Canadian girls have a wide field from which to choose their particular form
of occupation. To choose wisely is a duty we owe to ourselves and to our
country--to ourselves, because a wise choice helps to secure our happiness
in work; to our country, because she has a right to the best we can offer
her in return for the peace and freedom in which we live under her laws.
Every year new varieties of employment and new positions in old employments
are being added to the field of work for girls and women. Work at home is
being systematized, and new devices are increasing the efficiency of the
work of a home. Among the girls who are beginning work to-day are some who
will develop further the management of the home on modern economic and
social lines. Forward-thinking people anticipate a great advance which will
be made by the girls of the twentieth century in the management of homes.
But what of the workers outside the home? Opportunities of employment
are steadily increasing. Already women are making a business of growing
vegetables and flowers, are engaged in the work of poultry farms,
bee-keeping, and in dairy production. Women are undertaking the work of
chemical experts in factories. Girls are driving motors and collecting
waste. They are shopping experts, employment experts, house furnishers,
agents for renting houses, and one woman has become an expert in testing
flour for a great milling industry. These are new employments. Hundreds of
thousands of girls and women are at work in the long-established women's
employments, as factory workers, saleswomen, stenographers, house workers,
telephone and telegraph operators, waitresses, milliners, dressmakers and
seamstresses, teachers, and nurses.
Some opportunities for employment are close at hand; others are farther
away. Sometimes it is best to begin with the nearest work. But in any case
the girl should take time to think of her employment. There are various
helpers to whom she may turn when she is beginning to think about work--her
father and mother, her teachers, the Government Employment Bureau, a good
private employment expert such as may be found in the Young Women's
Christian Association, or an older friend who is able to advise her and,
finally, the girl should help herself. She should think carefully of the
kind of work it seems likely that she may get to do and ask herself what
employment she finds most attractive and whether she has some aptitude
for it.
The following are some of the questions a girl should ask herself when she
is thinking of her employment: Shall I be able to improve and become more
skilful in my work? Will the work give me good companionship? Are the
surroundings clean and comfortable, and will they be good for my health
and the health of other workers? Is the employment likely to give me a
fair wage?
The statements made about wages in different employments apply generally to
the scale of wages paid in one particular city. No one set of figures can
be given which will state accurately the wages in many cities and towns and
country districts. The value of wages cannot be estimated properly by the
girl unless she knows at the same time what her living expenses are to be.
She must know, too, the standard of efficiency required in the employment.
These questions are discussed specially in Chapters XXIII and XXIV. When
the girl reads any statement concerning wages, she should remember that the
figures given represent only an approximate estimate. That is, while these
wages have actually been paid in one place, the same wages will not be
offered in these employments in every part of the country. Generally
speaking, the figures quoted represent mid-war wages.
The most important fact for the girl to learn about employment is that
when she does well-chosen work in the right spirit, she will find in it
happiness and usefulness. Through her work she will learn what an
interesting place the world is, and because she is a worker she will be
the companion of great workers who are advancing civilization every day.
She may feel sure that there is work for her to do, that she will find
work good, and the world a friendly place.